Eduardo
Dantas will instead put his gold on the line against Anthony
Leone, who lost to Silva in the final of Bellator’s 2013 Summer
Series tournament. Bellator officials attempted to book Dantas
against Season 9 tournament winner Joe Warren, but
the former Greco-Roman world champion was also unavailable to
compete due to a knee issue.

“It was really hard to have to Bjorn [Rebney] call me and have to
turn down a fight, but my knee just isn’t at a place I’m
comfortable with, and my timeline has always been to get back in
the cage in May,” Warren stated in a release.

Bellator 111 takes place March 7 at Winstar World Casino in
Thackerville, Okla., and will also feature the opening round of
Bellator’s Season 10 heavyweight tournament, showcasing former
kickboxing standouts Peter Graham
and Siala-Mou
Siliga, as well as ex-Bellator titlist Alexander
Volkov and UFC alumnus Lavar
Johnson.

Leone, 26, saw a four-fight winning streak snapped by Silva this
past October, when he dropped a unanimous decision to the Brazilian
at Bellator 102. Prior to that setback, the Team Bombsquad rep
notched split decision wins over Claudio
Ledesma and ex-champion Zach
Makovsky before choking out Frank Baca to
advance in the four-man Summer Series draw.

Dantas captured the belt by putting Makovsky to sleep with an
arm-triangle in 2012 but suffered a knockout defeat to current
World Series of Fighting talent Tyson Nam at
Shooto Brazil 33 later that year. “Dudu” rebounded from the loss in
his last outing, however, knocking out Marcos Galvao
roughly one year ago at Bellator 89.